bludragon
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2005
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Initial Squeezebox2 sound impressions vs my luck and a NAD C 541
So, finally got my squeezebox on Friday, after waiting 10 days for Dabs to get them in and one to me. Already had slimserver/softsqueeze up and going. Plugged it in, and seems I was unlucky at first. Everything worked except for the actual decoding of the audio. I connected to the server OK, could browse my music, add to the playlist and set it playing. At this point the spectrum analyzer would not show any activity, nor once I'd enabled it via the server, did the time counter increase. After making sure I wasn't doing anything stupid, I decided to post my problem on the slimdevices forum. 10 minutes later I had a suggestion from Sean Adams, of Slim Devices, which had me up and going in around 2 minutes. Turns out somehow the FPGA programming had become corrupt, and I needed to get the box to reprogram it.
Brilliant. So, 2 minutes setup time assuming you've not been unlucky enough to get one with a corrupt FPGA. For the sake of completeness, I should add that I did have another minor issue in that I couldn't enter my full length WPA key with the supplied firmware (software for the processor - different from program for the FPGA) - it wouldn't scroll along once I reached the edge of the screen. The latest firmware almost fixed this - it now scrolls along, but if seems unhappy once I enter the final character. No matter, I'm sure shortening my key by one digit won't be too insecure.
OK, so I'm up and running, I'm sat in my chair, and I'm quickly thinking that having access to every CD I own via a remote control is pretty much as revolutionary as going from cassettes to CD's. Great, brilliant, what could be better? Well, it doesn't sound half bad either, but I happen to have a pretty decent CD player, so lets see how it sounds compared to that.
Initial test system (prices are retail - I don't think I managed to pay quite this much for anything)
NAD C 541 CD player ~ 3yrs old (£330) + QED silver spiral ~5yrs old (£90) - 0 Ohms measured resistance
vs
Squeezebox2 (£190) + home made 3m network cable interconnect - 0.2 Ohms measured resistance.
Both playing through a Musical Fidelity X-A2 ~5yrs old (£500), and some B&W DM601 speakers ~6yrs old (£200) biwired with some variety of QED silver speaker cable (~£7/m).
Impressions:
Foo Fighters, in your honor, cd2
Play Squeezebox, play NAD, OK, the NAD is louder, going to have to try to compensate for that.
back to Squeezebox and nudge the volume control is there a difference?
NAD (nudge volume) - I think this sounds better,
Squeezebox (nudge volume so its definitely louder) - OK, the NAD has it.
To summarize, after struggling at first to make out a difference, the NAD sounds smoother / fuller with vocals vs the sqeezebox which has a sightly grainy character, and symbols seem to have more energy. There's possibly more dynamic range, with the symbols hitting you from a quieter background.
In terms of bass, the NAD does have a fatness to it, which pretty much always sounds good, but I suspect it may be adding a touch of distortion here.
OK, possibly unfair to not check out the difference to the cables, give the squeezebox the QED interconnect, the differences are still there. Compare cables on the NAD only. Its very difficult to notice a difference, exacerbate by the time it takes me to plug, unplug and restart the track, but the QED might just have a slightly smoother mid upper and more detailed, or simply louder treble.
This is all straight out the box for the squeezebox, so I left it playing for a few days, having added every cd I own to the playlist. This is where I discover that after ~ 1 day of playing it stops, and I need to go back to the network config, to get it to see my wireless network connection. DOH! Have yet to investigate this properly, but I'm on the best channel I can find, getting 70-80% signal strength.
2nd Test System
OK, 5 days on, lets have a listen through some headphones, specifically some sennheiser HD650's (~£230) powered by a WNA (White noise audio) MkII headphone amp, with a few tweaks (~165 for the DIY kit). I've only recently got this setup, but it turns out it was a mistake. It makes my musical fidelity amp, and B&W speakers that once sounded excellent, now sound far too much like a cheap ghetto blaster. I really don't want to spend 2k on a full size system to match the quality offered by this headphone system.
NAD - oh wow, I really need to stop wasting my headphone system by attaching it to my pc (but that's what I got it for).
Squeezebox - OK this is good too, but the step down from the NAD is now more obvious (possibly because I know what I'm looking for), but unchanged in character from previously.
Cheap liteon divx/dvd player - far worse than either of the above. I can't even begin to describe how its worse, its too far away to make any sensible comparison.
Conclusion.
Squeezebox concept is brilliant. Going from cassette to cd meant you could pick your track with ease. This is the next step. No more hunting around for that album I might have left in the kitchen, no more long interruptions, when I feel like listening to a few tracks off different albums. No more always listening to the same stuff because that's what's out. Hardware configurability seems excellent - the firmware for the cpu can be updated, as can the algorithms that run on the FPGA. Currently the software seems good, but not idiot proof - mostly due to the wireless network setup.
Sound quality is very good, and probably (without having tested it against one) matches the sound of a dedicated cd player in the region of £150.
The worst bit - ripping all the cds you own. Make sure you do this properly to start with. Set up EAC with FLAC, then do a couple of cds, and test them with the software to make sure the artist, album name, etc is to your liking. Only then take the time to work your way through your entire collection. Keep the log files, so if any of your cds have any problems reading, you'll at least know which one's aren't quite bit perfect. Ideally then back up the whole lot onto another hdd in another machine.
The future:
I'm going to upgrade the external psu.
I might modify the box itself - possiblly adding a couple of super reg's to upgrade the internal psu's.
I really really want to try it with a Cyrus DAC-X (£1000), or an all digital TACT amp (£2200), and a nice pair of floorstanders (£700-£1000), but might have to wait until my numbers come up for that!
One day I'll finally finish that DAC concept I started 6 yrs ago at university, and try it with that.
Can I have one for my car please? No really, I want one, and I'll pay double.
So, finally got my squeezebox on Friday, after waiting 10 days for Dabs to get them in and one to me. Already had slimserver/softsqueeze up and going. Plugged it in, and seems I was unlucky at first. Everything worked except for the actual decoding of the audio. I connected to the server OK, could browse my music, add to the playlist and set it playing. At this point the spectrum analyzer would not show any activity, nor once I'd enabled it via the server, did the time counter increase. After making sure I wasn't doing anything stupid, I decided to post my problem on the slimdevices forum. 10 minutes later I had a suggestion from Sean Adams, of Slim Devices, which had me up and going in around 2 minutes. Turns out somehow the FPGA programming had become corrupt, and I needed to get the box to reprogram it.
Brilliant. So, 2 minutes setup time assuming you've not been unlucky enough to get one with a corrupt FPGA. For the sake of completeness, I should add that I did have another minor issue in that I couldn't enter my full length WPA key with the supplied firmware (software for the processor - different from program for the FPGA) - it wouldn't scroll along once I reached the edge of the screen. The latest firmware almost fixed this - it now scrolls along, but if seems unhappy once I enter the final character. No matter, I'm sure shortening my key by one digit won't be too insecure.
OK, so I'm up and running, I'm sat in my chair, and I'm quickly thinking that having access to every CD I own via a remote control is pretty much as revolutionary as going from cassettes to CD's. Great, brilliant, what could be better? Well, it doesn't sound half bad either, but I happen to have a pretty decent CD player, so lets see how it sounds compared to that.
Initial test system (prices are retail - I don't think I managed to pay quite this much for anything)
NAD C 541 CD player ~ 3yrs old (£330) + QED silver spiral ~5yrs old (£90) - 0 Ohms measured resistance
vs
Squeezebox2 (£190) + home made 3m network cable interconnect - 0.2 Ohms measured resistance.
Both playing through a Musical Fidelity X-A2 ~5yrs old (£500), and some B&W DM601 speakers ~6yrs old (£200) biwired with some variety of QED silver speaker cable (~£7/m).
Impressions:
Foo Fighters, in your honor, cd2
Play Squeezebox, play NAD, OK, the NAD is louder, going to have to try to compensate for that.
back to Squeezebox and nudge the volume control is there a difference?
NAD (nudge volume) - I think this sounds better,
Squeezebox (nudge volume so its definitely louder) - OK, the NAD has it.
To summarize, after struggling at first to make out a difference, the NAD sounds smoother / fuller with vocals vs the sqeezebox which has a sightly grainy character, and symbols seem to have more energy. There's possibly more dynamic range, with the symbols hitting you from a quieter background.
In terms of bass, the NAD does have a fatness to it, which pretty much always sounds good, but I suspect it may be adding a touch of distortion here.
OK, possibly unfair to not check out the difference to the cables, give the squeezebox the QED interconnect, the differences are still there. Compare cables on the NAD only. Its very difficult to notice a difference, exacerbate by the time it takes me to plug, unplug and restart the track, but the QED might just have a slightly smoother mid upper and more detailed, or simply louder treble.
This is all straight out the box for the squeezebox, so I left it playing for a few days, having added every cd I own to the playlist. This is where I discover that after ~ 1 day of playing it stops, and I need to go back to the network config, to get it to see my wireless network connection. DOH! Have yet to investigate this properly, but I'm on the best channel I can find, getting 70-80% signal strength.
2nd Test System
OK, 5 days on, lets have a listen through some headphones, specifically some sennheiser HD650's (~£230) powered by a WNA (White noise audio) MkII headphone amp, with a few tweaks (~165 for the DIY kit). I've only recently got this setup, but it turns out it was a mistake. It makes my musical fidelity amp, and B&W speakers that once sounded excellent, now sound far too much like a cheap ghetto blaster. I really don't want to spend 2k on a full size system to match the quality offered by this headphone system.
NAD - oh wow, I really need to stop wasting my headphone system by attaching it to my pc (but that's what I got it for).
Squeezebox - OK this is good too, but the step down from the NAD is now more obvious (possibly because I know what I'm looking for), but unchanged in character from previously.
Cheap liteon divx/dvd player - far worse than either of the above. I can't even begin to describe how its worse, its too far away to make any sensible comparison.
Conclusion.
Squeezebox concept is brilliant. Going from cassette to cd meant you could pick your track with ease. This is the next step. No more hunting around for that album I might have left in the kitchen, no more long interruptions, when I feel like listening to a few tracks off different albums. No more always listening to the same stuff because that's what's out. Hardware configurability seems excellent - the firmware for the cpu can be updated, as can the algorithms that run on the FPGA. Currently the software seems good, but not idiot proof - mostly due to the wireless network setup.
Sound quality is very good, and probably (without having tested it against one) matches the sound of a dedicated cd player in the region of £150.
The worst bit - ripping all the cds you own. Make sure you do this properly to start with. Set up EAC with FLAC, then do a couple of cds, and test them with the software to make sure the artist, album name, etc is to your liking. Only then take the time to work your way through your entire collection. Keep the log files, so if any of your cds have any problems reading, you'll at least know which one's aren't quite bit perfect. Ideally then back up the whole lot onto another hdd in another machine.
The future:
I'm going to upgrade the external psu.
I might modify the box itself - possiblly adding a couple of super reg's to upgrade the internal psu's.
I really really want to try it with a Cyrus DAC-X (£1000), or an all digital TACT amp (£2200), and a nice pair of floorstanders (£700-£1000), but might have to wait until my numbers come up for that!
One day I'll finally finish that DAC concept I started 6 yrs ago at university, and try it with that.
Can I have one for my car please? No really, I want one, and I'll pay double.
